FINALLY, NGD of the Year (for me)

I first saw this guitar around 2009 when my friend Dennis Kayzer purchased it and created an NGD thread on a few forums. I did not really know what to think of it, and quite frankly, I thought it was a little ugly.

Over time though, I started liking the shape more and more --- definitely an acquired taste. Eventually, I decided to check out Ulrich Teuffel’s website, and read more about his guitars.

For those who haven’t had a chance to check his site out, or haven’t heard of Teuffel, the detail and work that goes into these is nuts. Even the screws on this guitar are hand polished and buffed. The pickups are also very unique, the bridge pickup is essentially a hot PAF, but tweaked and the neck pickup is a single coil with two offset bobbins. One bobbin picks up bass strings and the other picks up the treble ones. The pickups are sealed in a vacuum chamber with a special sealing substance.

Anyways, I think about a year ago, I bought a 7 string Tesla from Buzzy at Lark Street Music. I loved it, but I sold it accidentally because I am a stupid gear*****. I have bought/sold hundreds of guitars and have only regretted selling 2-3 of them; that Tesla was my #1 regret! Right after I sold it, I put in an order for a new 7, but Ulrich said it would take two years to make, so I needed something to hold me over.

Fast forward to a few months ago, Kayzer put his red one up for sale, unfortunately I had just splurged on some other gear and could not pick it up. Another friend ended up buying it instead! After a lot of harassment, I managed to convince my friend to sell it to me!

I am just as pleased with my first 7 string Teuffel as I am with this one. This one sounds a bit more refined and tighter though, which is a good thing for me.

Like I mentioned, I have owned guitars from pretty much every boutique builder out there, but Teuffel has features that put him ahead of the others (IMO) because they are something you cannot get anywhere else. ...what are these features?

Ergonomics: I have nerve damage that affects my shoulders due to spinal stenosis and degenerative disc disease. This usually means I can’t play too much on the lower frets because it forces me to extend my shoulder out, but this guitar doesn’t do that at all because of how compact the body is. It feels really really good to be able to play without nearly as much pain as a I experience when playing normal guitars.

Tone: The low end on these guitars especially is amazingly solid and punchy sounding. Tuning down on the guitar is usually a compromise that involves loosing attack, clarity, harmonic content due to larger strings and a few other factors...especially when you tune below C. With this guitar you can tune down very low while maintaining the same punch and tone you do in more conventional tunings. The Teuffel site and other places mention that the extended body is the reason that the low end is so solid sounding, but I didn't believe it at all until I actually played my Tesla 7! Its not marketing bullshit like I had imagined before every trying one of these.

Playability: The guitar is very very easy to play. Maintains extremely low acton without compromising tone or sounding thin.

Oh, and the knobs function as follows.

Top buttom = pickup selector

Three knobs by the strings = microphonic button, killswitch, and 60 cycle hum

Even from the pics one can tell the craftsmanship is second to none! The body shape reminds me of a pick, and the neck joint looks otherworldly!

It is indeed a unique and beautiful guitar, Teuffel is definately a visionary.

Happy NGD, enjoy!

"A well-wound coil is a well-wound coil regardless if it's wound with professional equipment, or if somebody's great-grandmother winds it to an old French recipe with Napoleon's modified coffee grinder and chops off the wire after a mile with an antique guillotine!" - Bill Lawrence

What's the scale on that one: 25.5"?Carvin/Kiesel's headless guitars are only about 31" stem to stern, and weigh in at around 5 lbs for the non-trem versions. That's gotta help the folks with shoulder/spine issues, and especially someone like you who can't extend without pain.

I've often wondered if the extra beef offered by a single-cut (or, in your case, an extended single-cut) would make a difference in the sustain and the lower registers. Alan Cringean at AC guitars in the You Kay has been building some models of basses with a BIG fin on top for years, and I'm considering picking one up to see what it does.

There are issues with the placement of the actual fretting surface of guitars, and I've only begun noticing them in the last few years. When hanging in a strap, the SG pushes everything way out to the left, and you find yourself stretching to get to the low frets, even though it's a relatively short scale guitar. I think that's just one of the reasons it's neck heavy. LPs and Strats have pretty decent positioning. The Variax 89 I've been using a lot actually moves things (it seems to me) a bit to the right, and I have to go cross body a bit more to get to the higher frets. I've picked up the headless guitars a time or two, but haven't hung one in a strap to see where your arm naturally falls if you bring it right up from your side...

^^ I haven't tried any of those ACs, but I have them in my bookmarks (I'm sure because someone on some forum somewhere flagged them up). There might be some posts on the fretboard forum about them if you're interested? (It's a UK-aimed site, it's basically the same forum as the old MusicRadar (Guitarist magazine) forum)

I'm an idiot and I accidentally clicked the "Remove all subscriptions" button. If it seems like I'm ignoring you, I'm not, I'm just no longer subscribed to the thread. If you quote me or do the @user thing at me, hopefully it'll notify me through my notifications and I'll get back to you.

Quote by K33nbl4d3

I'll have to put the Classic T models on my to-try list. Shame the finish options there are Anachronism Gold, Nuclear Waste and Aged Clown, because in principle the plaintop is right up my alley.

Quote by K33nbl4d3

Presumably because the CCF (Combined Corksniffing Forces) of MLP and Gibson forums would rise up against them, plunging the land into war.